The architectural structure in this monumental painting was likely inspired by a brickworks that Kiefer saw while traveling in India. That building was in a perpetual state of construction and destruction: newly made bricks were stacked on top of it and then replaced as they were sold. Plumes of smoke suggest the fires within. Taken out of its socio-historical context, this building becomes an allegory of ephemerality. The stepped pyramidal form recalls the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs, Babylonian ziggurats, and Meso-American teocalli, all remnants of ancient cultures. The words in the corners translate to earth (upper right), sky (upper left), divinity (lower right), and mortals (lower left), which are the fundamental elements of German philosopher Martin Heidegger’s (1889–1976) concept of “das Geviert” (the square), a hymn to dwelling on the earth articulated in “Building, Dwelling, Thinking” (1954).